communist countries in africa during cold warcommunist countries in africa during cold war

In 1961, the ANC and the SACP created a joint military wing, known as the "Spear of the Nation." [10], As early as the 1930s, the Algerian Communist Party made up an important faction of the Algerian nationalist movement; however it supported France in the growing unrest, and was forced to dissolve in 1956. A product of the Cold War, the Southeast Asia War (1961-1973) began with communist attempts to overthrow non-communist governments in the region. Still, after the crisis, the Soviets were determined not to be humiliated by their military inferiority again, and they began a buildup of conventional and strategic forces that the United States was forced to match for the next 25 years. ", Yahia Zoubir, "Soviet policy toward the Western Sahara conflict. Joseph Stalin had a fleeting interest in claiming the former Italian colony of Tripolitania in modern-day Libya, but the NATO containment policy blocked those efforts. The Kremlin promptly sent military advisors and munitions. Anti-Communism informed almost every aspect of the South African government's foreign policy and much of its domestic policy. The Cold War had solidified by 194748, when U.S. aid provided under the Marshall Plan to western Europe had brought those countries under American influence and the Soviets had installed openly communist regimes in eastern Europe. Historically, communism on the continent was strongest in Egypt, Sudan, Algeria, and South Africa, which had significant European settlement, but such ideas remained foreign to the African masses until the principles of Marxism-Leninism became popular among intellectuals around the time of World War I (Drew 2014). Henceforth, the backdrop of decolonization was the Cold War. By 1980, then, South Africa ruled by what Castro called a Fascist-Racist regime stood alone against the forces of African nationalism. The trouble is, you never know whats going to happen yesterday., The Cuban mission was represented as a noble and selfless act of internationalist solidarity with a sister state whose hard-won liberty was under threat from reactionary and, above all, racist forces, says Christabelle Peters, the author of. The Kremlin supported Gizenga, but did not want to take the international risks involved in delivering material aid to the blockaded Orientale Province. During the 1970s the Cold War entered a phase known as dtente, described as "an improvement in the relationship between two countries that in the past were not friendly and did not trust each . ", Harry Brind, "Soviet policy in the Horn of Africa. President Kasa-Vubu used his command of the army to launch a coup d'tat, expelling the Soviet advisors and establishing a new government under his own control. The point was not lost on Soviet propagandists. This hostility between the two superpowers was first given its name by George Orwell in an article published in 1945. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014. Foreign interference became a hallmark of the past-World War II era, even its first months. Saivetz, Carol R., and Sylvia Woodby, eds. African Socialism. Young, Crawford. During 1956-1986, as part of the long South African Border War (1966-1990), the Soviets supplied and trained combat units from Namibia (SWAPO) and Angola (MPLA) at the ANC military training camps in Tanzania. Idahosa, P.L.E. The Populist Dimension to African Political Thought: Critical Essays in Reconstruction and Retrieval. There was alarm in Washington, where CIA director Allen Dulles suspected that Lumumba was a Castro or worse, and the CIA moved in, supplied with dollars and a hitman instructed to assassinate Lumumba with poisoned toothpaste. The Cuban mission was represented as a noble and selfless act of internationalist solidarity with a sister state whose hard-won liberty was under threat from reactionary and, above all, racist forces, says Christabelle Peters, the author of Cuban Identity and the Angolan Experience and a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Warwick. He was overthrown by his defense minister Houari Boumdine, who was in charge 1965-1976. Algeria became a leader of the Non-Aligned Movement, and largely targeted its rhetoric towards the United States, rather than France. Its founder Vladimir Lenin did argue in his famous book Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism that imperialism was inherently caused by capitalism, and the inaugural session of the Comintern in 1919 included a declaration of solidarity for "the colonial slaves of Africa and Asia." A large number of foreign countries at least 36 according to Edward George intervened in a significant way in Angolas civil war, which did not end until 2002. The invasion of Port Said, and the operation to capture the Suez Canal, was launched. However, most of its attempts to spread Communism were initially focused on Europe and this did not prevent Lenin and Stalin from trying to force all the former territories of the Russian Empire into the Soviet Union. BELIEF IN SOCIALISM But for many leaders, it made more sense to evolve an While the colonial empires crumbled, two superpowers jostled for influence in the world. This edited volume seeks to evaluate what is termed the second wave of socialist experiments in Africa. Two small countries deserve pride of place: Cuba, which sent tens of thousands of soldiers to southern Africa, and Sweden, which gave vital economic assistance to African liberation movements. We were given two uniforms, one for classes and one for working in the fields, Mixinge recalls. [1] It did not appear right for revolution because it was almost entirely controlled by European imperial powers, with the peasantry under the political control of tribal leaders, and low levels of proletarian consciousness in the small working-class. For example, after the Algerian revolution began in November 1954, the Soviets hesitated for more than two years before sending weapons to the rebels for fear of antagonizing the French government. Without France, what would you be or do? This was the view of many French people, and of many of the 700,000 European settlers (colons) in Algeria who enjoyed the advantages of French citizenship. In the 1980s the People's Democratic Republic of Ethiopia plunged into greater turmoil and the Soviet system itself was collapsing by 1990. But, as in the neighbouring DRC, Soviet support alone was not enough to secure power. The Cold War was heavily felt was in South Africa. "Soviet training and research programs for Africa." As Soviet and American patronage (and arms) spread across the continent, Nyerere warned that a second scramble for Africa by Russia and its satellites was under way. The South African government's stand found support in the Portuguese colonial regimes of Angola and Mozambique, which hung on until 1975, and the white government of Ian Smith in Rhodesia (modern Zimbabwe), which only yielded to majority rule in 1980.All these regimes equated political opposition with a desire to overthrow capitalism and nationalise the private sector. This coup de main misfired. Key words: Africa, Cold War, colonialism, USA, USSR, foreign policy, poli tics In March 1976 Egypt abrogated the friendship treaty. By the mid-1980s, the communist powerhouse was facing an economic crisis, losing a war in Afghanistan and overstretched in Africa. The link was not copied. In the late 1970s, Cold War confrontations really flared in southern Africa, but also picked up steam in the Americas. (2009) 7#5 pp 1259-1268. human resources had been so ruthlessly exploited for the sake of profit He went into exile, followed by 1,000 of his Soviet advisors. Get FREE access to HistoryExtra.com. The first such confrontation occurred in the former . On the other hand, both ideology and realpolitik led the Soviet Union to support those who fought for independence. The Soviet Union was the first country in the world to recognize the Provisional Government of the Algerian Republic in 1962 by establishing diplomatic relations a few months before the official proclamation of its independence. For more information or to contact an Oxford Sales Representative click here. Castro growled about betrayal, but acquiesced. France persuaded a sceptical Washington that it was fighting communist-backed insurgents in Algeria; the result was that Sikorsky helicopters, manufactured in the United States and intended for Nato service, were used to hunt down Algerian guerrillas. under Agostinho Neto and Eduardo dos Santos. The United States and the Soviet Union began developing intercontinental ballistic missiles, and in 1962 the Soviets began secretly installing missiles in Cuba that could be used to launch nuclear attacks on U.S. cities. 1950s / Cold War. Both of these regional conflicts continued into the 1980s. United States intervention in Angola was heavily shaped by several factors. Britain, France, Belgium and Portugal were valuable Nato allies but, if they persisted in resisting African nationalist movements or delaying independence, they were offering the Soviet Union a propaganda bonus. Fear of Communism haunted the white minority government of South Africa from the 1950's to the collapse of single party rule in Eastern Europe in 1989. In these colonies, jailing, torturing, and killing Africans was routine, but not on a large scale, except in Madagascar (19471948) and Kenya (19521956), where there were major revolts; neither received outside assistance. Here we are one year after Russia's blood-drenched invasion of Ukraine, the country that has always been the leading tripwire for a global nuclear war in the post-Soviet era. Millions died in these proxy wars throughout Africa; food production and distribution were disrupted, and regional famines followed. Rosberg, Carl, and Thomas Callaghy, eds. For 40 years, the apartheid regime had presented itself as a bastion against communism a stance that had secured it a steady flow of western arms. African elites who were exposed to socialist ideas either in the workplace or through the writings of theorists such as Karl Marx and V.I. Lenin and were attracted by the notions of social equality, mutual respect, and the sharing of labor. All thanks to the Putin regime's invasion of Ukraine. Mr. Substantial and decisive support came from Fidel Castro as part of what he saw as Cubas mission to engage in the global conflict between privileged and underprivileged, humanity against imperialism. [19] During the Nasser years, many young Egyptians studied in Soviet universities and military schools. End of the World War II. James Mulira, "The role of the Soviet Union in the decolonization process of Africa: from Lenin to Brezhnev. What is often referred to as Marxism-Leninism rejects participatory democracy in favor of a disciplined, vanguard party in which democracy is practiced only in the central leadership organs of the party. In the liberation struggles, film was a tool not only to document ongoing struggles and spread propaganda, but to inspire a sense of post-colonial, national identity. [2] In the Comintern, the chief spokesmen for Africa were whites from the Communist Party of South Africa. This book presents an analysis of the scope and quality of a select number of African states that came to espouse Marxism-Leninism or scientific socialism during their heyday. October 02 1958 October 02 The Cold War comes to Africa, as Guinea gains its independence The former French colony of Guinea declares its independence on October 2, 1958, with Sekou Toure as. The United States treated Angola and Mozambique as strategic assets, arming the 200,000 Portuguese conscripts who fought a long-running war against local nationalist insurgents with an imported arsenal including napalm and defoliants. Pretoria severed diplomatic ties with Moscow in 1956, because of its support for the SACP. First, much like in Vietnam, American leaders, such as Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, believed that a Communist takeover in Angola would lead to a "domino effect" in the rest of southern Africa. Newly independent nations such as Angola, Mozambique and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) provided the stages for some of the most bloody proxy battles between East and West, as the United States, apartheid-era South Africa and China tried to prevent the spread of communism in the global south, while Cuba and the Eastern Bloc sought to support it. Both tended to favour ambitious local military men who possessed hard power on the ground. During the 1950s Mau Mau uprising in Kenya, for example, MI5 investigated possible Soviet involvement but, when questioned, bewildered tribesmen asked: What does a Russian look like? and Can Russians speak Swahili? Clearly, the KGB was making little headway in east Africa. Somalia appeared to be on the brink of victory after gaining control of 90% of the area. ", Sergei Mazov, "Soviet Aid to the Gizenga Government in the Former Belgian Congo (196061) as Reflected in Russian Archives. Almost 450,000 Cubans served in Angola between 1975 and 1991, according to historian Edward George, not only in the military but also as much-needed doctors, teachers and technicians. Byrne, Jeffrey James. From 1955, the Soviet Union poured modern warplanes and weaponry into Egypt, which Nasser deployed in clashes with Israel. Furthermore, Nkrumah feared close relations with the Soviets would lead to a neo-colonialist relationship. The Gizenga regime was crushed in early 1962. Filmmaking both documentary and fiction in support of rebellious causes were emerging across the world, from Palestine to Latin America, and young members of guerrilla movements such as the PAIGCs Flora Gomes and Sana Na Nhada were sent to Cuba to learn the language and techniques of Third Cinema, the values of revolution and social justice of which echoed the early, utopian ideals of African anti-colonial struggles. The communist governments of Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union collapsed between 1989 and 1991. [16], Facing enormous turmoil in the newly independent Republic of the Congo (Lopoldville), Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba, the charismatic leader of the Mouvement National Congolais, reacted by calling for assistance from the Soviet Union. Meanwhile, the United States launched the Marshall Plan, which infused massive amounts of economic aid . Welcomed by President John F Kennedy in 1963, Mobutu was Americas man. The first is that Communism has made its gains in a comparatively short period of time. This resulted in the widespread popularity of the ideas of Pan-Africanists from America, Europe, and the Caribbean, such as George Padmore and W.E.B. Dubois and the proponents of the concept of Ngritude as espoused by Leopold Senghor of Senegal and Aim Csaire of Martinique. Others were appalled by everyday racism: one was asked by Russians whether Africans lived in houses. Diplomatic ties were reestablished with Russia in February 1992, after the Soviet Union was dissolved. Your country's customs office can offer more details, or . It will not include, therefore, one of Africas greatest human dramas, the Nigerian civil war (19671970), because the two superpowers supported the federal government in Lagos. Expand or collapse the "in this article" section, The Congo (Now the Democratic Republic of the Congo), 19601965, War in the Portuguese Colonies, 19611975, European Communist Countries Other Than the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia, Art, Art History, and the Study of Africa, British Colonial Rule in Sub-Saharan Africa, Communism, Marxist-Leninism, and Socialism in Africa, Development of Early Farming and Pastoralism, Early States And State Formation In Africa, Eastern Africa and the South Asian Diaspora, Great Lakes States of Eastern Africa, The, Health, Medicine, and the Study of Africa, Historiography and Methods of African History, Indian Ocean and Middle Eastern Slave Trades, Kongo and the Coastal States of West Central Africa. The list of external actors also includes the other Scandinavian countries, Yugoslavia, Moscows Eastern European clients, Egypt, and the Peoples Republic of China. But the significance of this in domestic politics was only felt after the Second World War.After 1945, Africa became caught up in the confrontation between America and the Soviet Union, the so-called Cold War. Russian commentators turned scornful of the Ethiopian regime. The Cuban missile crisis showed that neither the United States nor the Soviet Union were ready to use nuclear weapons for fear of the others retaliation (and thus of mutual atomic annihilation). Empires had always proclaimed intended reciprocity. Simultaneously, French troops landed at Raswa and Port Fuad just to the south and east. Fidel Castro sent 300,000 Cuban troops to Africa to support fellow revolutionaries against Western imperialism. ", Aryeh Y. Yodfat, "The Soviet Union and the Horn of Africa,", Diana L. Ohlbaum, "Ethiopia and the Construction of Soviet Identity, 1974-1991. The favorite technique therefore was to identify the Soviet Union with the rising tide of nationalism to demonstrate that they in Moscow were engaged in a common struggle against Western imperialism. By 1975, some 36,000 Cuban reservists with artillery, tanks and missile systems were serving in Angola, while Cuban doctors, teachers and technicians replaced their Portuguese counterparts who had returned home. under Mengistu Haile Mariam, following ", Gary D. Payton, "The Soviet-Ethiopian Liaison: Airlift and Beyond. The highlights this week: A recently concluded Chinese Communist Party leadership meeting offered some hints about an impending . That did not happen, and instead the Soviets emphasized identifying likely allies and giving them financial aid and munitions, as well as credits to purchase from the Soviet bloc. Explore technological innovations of the Cold War, How the Cold War helped foster antibiotic resistance. 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